Foul Weather Does Not
Dampen Spirits of Business Leaders On Fifth Annual Cruise
of County Waterfront, Port Area UCC Cruise

By PAUL J. PEYTON

Specially Written for
The Westfield Leader and The Times

While many workers and
residents in Union County were dealing with flooding from
last Thursdays stormy weather, business and
government leaders braved the rough surf for the
opportunity to network with each other for the common
goal of economic development as part of the fifth annual
cruise of the New Jersey and Manhattan waterfront
sponsored by the Union County Economic Development
Corporation (UCEDC).

Heads of Chambers of Commerce
and downtown revitalization programs, local business
leaders and elected and appointed officials had the
opportunity to discuss important issues such as the
dredging of the New York and New Jersey ports. The cruise
began under a windswept tent at the Elizabeth Marina.
Among the sites were the Elizabeth and Manhattan
Waterfront, Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Although the weather did not
cooperate, the event provided an opportunity for
networking among official and business leaders as well as
an opportunity to learn more about development along the
countys waterfront.

Although a sea and air rescue
demonstration by the United States Coast Guard had to be
canceled due to the inclement weather, those in
attendance did receive a presentation about the dredging
project currently ongoing in the harbor.

Maureen Tinen, UCEDC President,
said the networking event enables representatives of
local Chambers of Commerce, Special Improvement
Districts, grassroots groups, community leaders and
people employed in workforce development, to interact
with one another.

Although attendance was down
from previous years due to the weather, a majority of the
150 invited guests turned out for the four-hour cruise
from the Elizabeth Marina to the Brooklyn Bridge and
back.

Ms. Tinen said the first cruise
in 1993 focused on the development along the waterfront.
Last year the guest speaker was the head of the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey, who spoke about the
importance of dredging the port.

As a special theme this year,
the UCEDC gave out gift bag of items made in Union County
to each of the guests as they disembarked the Amberjack V
enclosed yacht charter.

"This (the gift bag) gives
them (the guests) a sense of the kinds of things our rich
manufacturing-base produces," said Ms. Tinen.

In the past few years she said
development in the county has been geared towards retail,
such as IKEA furniture stores and the Metromall projects,
both in Elizabeth; national chains in downtowns as well
as increased entrepreneurship in the less affluent
communities.

The UCEDC, Ms. Tinen said,
offers microloans for those starting out in business. The
program includes six weeks of training for new
entrepreneurs as well as start-up financing. She also
noted the emphasis by the county Freeholder board over
the past few years on the countys transportation
infrastructure.

During the 1989 to 1992 period,
she said, Union County lost one out of every four
manufacturers. She said those manufacturers that are left
have had to do more with less and thus have been unable
to create new jobs. Ms. Tinen noted that although job
growth has not been tremendous, neither has the
population growth in the county. The county unemployment
rate currently is around 5.3 percent.

Union County Freeholder Donald
Goncalves, who chairs the boards new Economic
Development Committee and is employed by the Elizabeth
Economic Development Corporation, said the cleanup of the
waterfront and the Port of Elizabeth are crucial to the
countys economic future.

"From an economic
development standpoint, we always said that Union County
thrives because of our ports and because of our
location," he explained, noting that the water and
air are the countys natural resources and thus must
be cleaned up.

Given the tremendous volume of
passengers arriving daily at Newark International
Airport, 40 percent of which lies in Union County,
Freeholder Goncalves noted that it is important that the
county start to become a destination point for new
businesses.

Freeholder Frank H. Lehr said
the cruise gives invited guests, which he described as
the "movers and shakers" in the county, the
opportunity to witness first hand the activity in the
Port of Elizabeth. He noted that the Port of New York
lies in New Jersey.

"And 60 percent of that is
in Elizabeth," he said, while observing a ship
headed out of the port. "When you look out at that
(pointing at a large container ship leaving the port for
overseas) you see the amount of activity and how
important this port is and how important it is to dredge
so we can continue the benefits that we get from
it."

Thomas H. Wakeman, 3rd,
Dredging Program Manager for the Port Commerce Department
of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said
the Port Authority is currently dredging New
Jerseys marine terminals of some 159,000 cubic
yards of dredge material not suitable for ocean dumping.
Officials have said this is necessary to establish water
depths ranging from 35 to 40 feet.

The sediment will then be
processed to make it suitable for land disposal, and
transported to the new MetroMall site for reuse as top
fill for a new parking lot. The Newark Bay Confined
Disposal Facility is a new dredge being created in the
Newark Bay to contain contaminated dredge material which
cannot be dumped at the ocean mud dump site.
Approximately 10,000 cubic yards of material is being
dredged daily.

Mr. Wakeman said Port Elizabeth
is the third largest containerized shipping terminal in
the nation, and the largest on the east coast, both
import and export, and the largest petroleum port in the
nation.

Speaking about last years
cruise, Superintendent of Union County
Vocational-Technical Schools Dr. Thomas J. Bistocchi said
the networking event enabled him to explain the concept
of vo-techs new magnet school for accelerated
learning in mathematics and science to education leaders.

The school will open on the
Vo-Tech campus in September with a freshman class of 70
students. Dr. Bistocchi said there were 170 applicants
for the 70 openings this year and he expects up to 300
applicants for the same amount of openings for the
1998-1999 freshman class. The school will reach a
capacity of 280 students by the time the magnet school
marks its fourth year.

Union Countys magnet
school is the fifth in the state, he said, noting that
Bergen County has such a school while Monmouth County has
three magnet schools. Hudson County is opening a science
and technical accelerated learning school in September,
as well.

Dr. Bistocchi has also used the
UCEDCs cruise to talk to potential employers of
Vo-Tech students about the training the schools 750
students receive each year.

For Westfield Board of
Education President Susan Jacobson, who represented the
Union County Chamber of Commerce on the cruise, her
second cruise enabled her to try and recruit new members
for the Chamber while also learning the concerns and
problems faced by businesses in the county. The
countys chamber, which has been in existence for
over 85 years, currently has 700 members.

"Last year my experience
was terrific because it gave me the opportunity to meet
and network with people who were able to point to the
need. Our focus is really service to our members and so
we were really able to translate that need into different
groups and different seminar series that we are doing
now," said Mrs. Jacobson.

Among the other invited guests
on the cruise were new County Manager Michael LaPolla,
County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi, Freeholder Vice Chairman
Daniel P. Sullivan and Scotch Plains Mayor Irene T.
Schmidt. Due to the bad weather a pre-boarding reception
on the dock, sponsored by CoreStates Bank, was canceled.
The major corporate sponsor for the trip was Bell
Atlantic.

The UCEDC will hold its next
networking event, a golf tournament, in the fall.
Officials hope the weather will cooperate this time
around.